Crude Oil Futures Drops By 1% On Higher OPEC Output Survey

Iran's crude exports fell further in the first week of October, according to tanker data and an industry source, reportedReuters, as buyers sought alternatives ahead of us sanctions on Iran that take effect on November 4.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures fell $1.77 to $73.19 a barrel, a 2.4 percent loss. As the U.S. -China trade tensions escalate, investors are shunning risk assets from equities to oil on fears over slowing growth.

"The weaker outlook has gotten a raised profile in the market, but there's potential for a real supply crunch toward the end of this year", said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital Management in NY. Brent lost 2.2 percent on Wednesday.

Last month, India shipped in about 528,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil from Iran, about 1 percent more than the 523,000 bpd of August and about 27 percent more than a year earlier, tanker arrival data obtained from shipping and industry sources showed.

The IEA report is the latest official forecaster to predict weaker demand ahead and conclude that supply is adequate.

A worker walks down the stairs of an oil tank at Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which is run by state-owned Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS), some 70 km (43.5 miles) from Adana February 19, 2014.

He also noted that triple digit prices "would require a sustainable outage in Iranian exports going down to zero plus another disruption someplace like Venezuela; the way we're seeing it is long dated oil prices are rising, the front-end is weakening which is telling you that hey, we don't have a problem today, we potentially have a problem tomorrow".

According to EIA, the weekly USA crude oil output was 16.2 million barrels, 352,000 barrels per day less than the previous week.

Oil found support on Friday from a gain in world stocks.

"The weaker outlook has gotten a raised profile in the market, but there's potential for a real supply crunch toward the end of this year", said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital Management in NY. The speculator group cut its combined futures and options position in NY and London by 36,652 contracts to 296,456 during the period.

The US "will take care" of countries which defy its directive to bring their oil imports from Iran to zero by 4 November, President Donald Trump has warned, days after India announced that two of its firms have placed orders to import crude from the Gulf nation.

A drop in US oil production this week supported prices.

The evacuations affected about 11 percent of the occupied platforms in the Gulf, it said.

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